It was either an impressive comeback effort by Burroughs that came up short or a potentially disastrous collapse by Arcadia that was avoided.

Either way, the Pacific League girls basketball rivals now find themselves in a three-way tie for first place with Burbank.

Arcadia nearly relinquished a 21-point lead with 13 minutes remaining, but despite 29 points, eight rebounds and five blocks from senior Aysia Shellmire, the host Indians couldn't overcome their sluggish start in a 52-49 setback Wednesday.

"We thought we had it and we didn't. We got lazy, and that's becoming a habit for us and we need to stop it," said Arcadia's Caira Benton, who had 18 points and 14 rebounds, securing the victory with a layup with 34 seconds remaining.

"It seemed like (Aysia's) game was a little off at the start. I've heard a lot of great things about her and she's a rhythm player, but it just seemed like it took a while for her to get going. But she was the reason why they caught up."

Benton's layup gave Arcadia (15-3, 5-1) a 40-19 lead with five minutes left in the third, but Shellmire scored eight of the next 10 points for Burroughs (16-3, 5-1) to spark a 12-2 run to close the quarter.

Shellmire added 11 points in the fourth, but despite Apaches' leading scorer, Melody Chang, being limited to two second-half points -- finishing with 13 -- the Indians' momentum was halted twice by clutch 3-pointers from Clay Huynh, who scored 11 points.

"It forces us to step up," Benton said. "When (Melody) graduates, we're going to be the ones to take over. They don't know as much about us, so we try to take advantage of that."

Burroughs twice cut the deficit to three in the final 90 seconds on baskets by Shellmire, but couldn't overcome allowing 24 second-quarter points to the Apaches. Bailee Trotta's desperation 3-pointer from just inside half court hit off the backboard as time expired.

"In the second half, we just relaxed and started playing. We forgot about whatever was on our minds and just played basketball," Indians coach Vicky Oganyan said. "We missed a couple of key opportunities (in the fourth), but otherwise, we played almost a flawless second half. I felt like as poorly as we played in the first half, eventually we would come out of it."

Jakarra Waddell had seven points and Davina Del Castillo added five points and nine rebounds for Burroughs, which had its 12-game winning streak snapped. The Indians play host Friday to Burbank (9-10, 5-1).